Originally Posted by
Jo90
It's 40 years since I operated through Teheran but I still remember well how the place is surrounded by some pretty high terrain. No pilot needing to make a quick return from the position of the incident would voluntarily make a right turn. All the traffic pattern is to the south where the terrain is relatively level.
This plane operated from Imam Khomeini International, 10 miles to the south-southwest of Mehrabad International Airport within Tehran proper. The Imam Khomeini airport didn't open until May 2004.
Your memory out of Tehran is correct - those mountains are very impressive.
In looking at the area it seems so ordinary. Malls, a go-kart track, car wash, furniture store, just like any other suburb. It's amazing that there weren't casualties on the ground. There are hundreds of houses the plane might have hit.
There's a CNN photo with a water tower in the background that I'm trying to match with Google Earth.